Qatar’s hopes of winning a medal at Tokyo Olympics will rest on its athletics stars, who will begin their campaign in the Games on Friday.
After winning the bronze medal at London 2012 Olympics and the silver medal at Rio 2016 Olympics, Qatar’s high jumper Mutaz Barshim has set his sights on winning the gold medal in Tokyo. The two-time world champion will participate in men’s high jump qualifications to begin at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo on Friday.
Barshim has scaled 2.40m 11 times since 2013 – only world record holder Javier Sotomayor, with 17, has more successful clearances at that formidable barrier – and with a 2.43m personal best, is the second-highest jumper of all time.
The other Qatari medal contender Abderrahman Samba will also be in action today. The 25-year-old 400m hurdler will begin his challenge in heats. A slight injury slowed him in 2019 but he regrouped enough to take the bronze on home soil at the World Championships. Samba qualified for Tokyo Olympics after winning the 400 hurdles gold medal in the Shanghai Diamond League meeting 2019 with a world-leading time of 47.27 seconds and will arrive in Tokyo with a 48.26 season’s best.
Meanwhile, Bashayer al-Mnawari will face a stern test when she participates in women’s 100m heats today.
On the other hand, Qatar’s rower Tala Abujbara will participate in Final E race of women’s singles sculls event today to conclude her historic appearance in Tokyo Olympics.
After securing their spots in the knockout stages of the men’s Olympic beach volleyball tournament, Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan will take on Jacob Gibb and Tri Bourne of USA at the Shiokaze Park today
Cherif and Ahmed began their Olympic campaign with a 21-17, 21-16 victory over Adrian Heidrich and Mirco Gerson of Switzerland on Sunday then they edged past Italy’s Adrian Carambula and Enrico Rossi on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Mohamed al-Rumaihi finished the men’s trap shooting qualifying rounds in the 13th place with 121 points, just one point behind the last qualifier to the finals.
Jiri Liptak led a Czech one-two after prevailing in a shoot-off, while Zuzana Rehak-Stefecekova sparked celebrations in Slovakia by winning the women’s gold. Liptak and 2008 Beijing champion David Kostelecky exchanged amused smiles after finding themselves in a stalemate with both having shot 43 of the 50 targets in the final. Liptak had topped the qualification round missing one target, and the 39-year-old carried that red-hot form into the shoot-off. Kostelecky missed his seventh target to settle for silver as the team mates hugged, laughed and sat down together on the spot at the shotgun range strewn with shattered clay targets.